Hello I hope you all had a great long weekend and for those who celebrate, a wonderful Christmas. For me it was the start of a three week holiday and I am enjoying every minute of it. Looking back at a wonderful 2011 I am so grateful for this last year, that has been so good for me. Starting with a great holiday in January my brother offered me at the Dutch Antilles.

After not having been in such a warm place for years it felt so good and it certainly gave me the energy to finally pick up things I was thinking about for a long time. I have always been an optimistic person who, even if times are hard, has a strong and positive look at things but this last year felt like one big positive flow. I made so many great new friends, had some beautiful trips to Paris. Welcomed a lot of new lovely readers on the blog and even met some of you in person. In this last post of 2011 some snapshots from the photo shoot VT Wonen did at my home last month. Being my all time favorite magazine, I have been reading and collecting the magazine for years. And like many of you I am totally in love with the style and I especially love the work of my favorite stylist 'Frans Uyterlinde' {who also designed the VT Wonen home at the 'Woonbeurs'}I was really happy he made some time on the last day before his holidays to have a look at my home and the shoot. It was great to have him around and see him with the photographer work at a photo shoot for the magazine in my own home. Something else to be really grateful for. The year ends with a new kitchen and lots of inspiration and new ideas for next year. I wish you all the happiness of the world and a healthy and happy new year.

Some random beauty I came across today that made my heart beat faster... Just loving the colours and the styling.... as if someone just left the place and can be back any minute.. I guess that's what still life is all about.

Since last spring. I am a regular blogger for the IKEA Family Live website. And today you will find me there with some DIY tips on how to make a tough-looking addition to your room with some simple Besta cabinets: A home makeover

X Mas.. at my favorite Parisian concept store... A friend of mine was in Paris recently and made some pictures for me of the ever changing interior of MERCI .... a little impression through the eyes of a friend

Same lamp.... different table

Liking all those legs this table has

'make a wish' at neighbor BontonFirst two and last pictures by Carla Coulson All other pictures : Vosgesparis

Being a huge fan of Therese Sennerholt myself, I am very pleased with this beautiful giveaway by Tutze,a huge webshop filled with Home accessories, brocante, decorations, pillows and everything else for you and your home.

Owner Ilse, a Dutch interior designer who lived in France for 12 years recently also opened a real store in her hometown called Tutzestorewhere she sells, next to a long list of other great brands, the artwork of Therese Sennerholt.

About 5 months ago I was reading about an upcoming contest in VT wonen magazine to win a Loft floor out of their VT Wonen floor collection. A competition they would run in their August 2011 issue. At that moment I was planning everything around the bigger kitchen I wanted to realize over the summer holidays. A kitchen I have been thinking about for a long time. It started with my dream of a lofty space and my masterplan

When time passed by you might have thought thismasterplanof me would never be reality.. But I make my plans and slowly,slowly I get there at the end! If you read my profile you know I like to do a lot of things myself, so it took some time before I had everything planned and enough budget to start.

FLoor Loft (kiezel) VT Wonen collection

So when the August issue of VT Wonen arrived I was still working on the kitchen and waiting for the walls to dry. No clue about the floors.. in love with my concrete. And in love with the industrial floor out of the VT Wonen collection, I had been drooling over since I saw that first picture (above). I made a collage of pictures of my brand new unfinished kitchen and wrote them about my masterplan and dream of living in a loft.

Meanwhile I continued working on the kitchen trying out all kind of things: playing with paper and tapePainted the rest of my home and painted one of the kitchen walls in a beautiful black. Although I joked to my friends about breaking down walls and a then just simply win a new floor and finally not having to DIY for a while anymore... I was not expecting anything at all.

To be honest I was sorting out paint for the concrete floor in the kitchen when my telephone rang and VT Wonen told me I won the competition. And within two weeks .... VT wonen's Linda and the floor company came over.... I cleaned out my whole home, floors were placed and everything was photographed for the magazine.

And here is the article, you now also might understand why it took me ages to finally (being able) to show something of my kitchen.I think it was a really big prize and I am so great full for it. The result is amazing and I finally have realized my big plans. Winning this floor was the cherry on the pie in this long process I started with my dream of a loft. ;) Thank you lovely people at VT Wonen! You can see some snap shots I made of the photo shoot here: Snaphots from the VT Wonen photo shoot {unplugged}

Hello again.. I feel like I have been away for ages since my last post 9 days ago. I am still rearranging things at home. Had a little birthday dinner party... another party and a meetup with a friend who brought me some great pictures from her last stay in Paris. I have several posts lining up, and exciting things to share... but need time to sort out pictures and write the words in the evening after my daily job.

So I will try to be back this week with pictures from MERCI and also with the last giveaway by Tutze in our 'End of the year special', one that I personally really love, being a poster and a set of cards by Therese Sennerholt. So keep checking back here or here, where we are having two giveaways still running! I am also busy starting up 'Edition2012' If you would like to advertise here on Vosgesparis or on my conceptpage {no name yet} you can mail me for more info and rates.

Now back to this post.... This might also be one of the first pictures of the kitchen I am adding to my blog actually ;) Yeahhh the kitchen is finally done! It is light and bright with a stunning black wall that I am L.O.V.I.N.G to bits! And since it is finished I spent most of my time in there. I am loving the 2.20 long table filled with burning candles in the evening and the Christmas lights around the black star. I also found a new white goat looking cute with a necklace of black and white star garlands from last year. Christmas feeling is slowly coming....see you soon again!

My home changed a lot over the last 4 months ... some great {and exciting} things happened after my last kitchen update. That I finally will be able to show you more off in about a day or ten..

Meanwhile I took out the Christmas decoration. I think we got some, like all families, in all sizes and colors. From my own childhood I remember my mother always dressing up the tree in silver and loving the silver bells and birds. My own children loved to go to the Christmas fair and choose some decoration of their own. We bought them little trees they could have in their own room. Over the years my Christmas decoration became less and also less traditional.

I loved my last years tree{So this is Christmas}that I made out of card board, painted white and decorated with stars You could say I love stars and I was happy to find these, by the way beautiful packed, Return to sender ones at our local HEMA department store. So once again a starry B&W Christmas for me I suppose...

Wooden Christmas tree from Wonen met Lef looking great against the black wall

We Dutch have this word 'Gezellig' It means something like Coziness... It is a feeling you get when having a meal with family and friends. Or when in winter you put on the heather, light the candles and curl on the couch with lost of cushions and a cup of tea. I really thought this pile of handmade XXL Cushions from Nepal... that by the way are called NEST ! Totally explained the word Gezellig.

Tonight I took some time to surf around and read lots of blogs from my reader-list, leaving comments takes a lot of time and I do try to always leave a note but sometimes I got distracted by a beautiful picture or a link you give... So as tonight.. I saw this picture above of the workplace and a link to an interview with fashion designer Antonio Marras.

It must have been the name that caught my attention , because I recognized it as being a Sardinian name. A name I have seen hundreds of times on signs or on the walls while spending over 25 long summers at my mother in laws place where she had a house in a little village nearby the sea, that could look like this. If you read my blog for some years you may know we went there every summer and I love this beautiful Island with all its traditions, where I have so many memories.

Antonio Marras was born in Alghero and the inspiration for his eponymous label is drawn from travels, tradition, history and memories... Unlike others who work in Paris or Milan he prefers to stay on the Island and work from there. If I look at the pictures of his collections or at this videoclip {look under ADV} I can't help to see images of Sardinian women in traditional customs, I even spent some time looking at pictures {being distracted again} and collecting some of them... I guess I got carried away a bit that ended up in this strange post.. a post that supposed to be about his workplace... There is no future without a past says Antonio in the interview ... I think he is right! Update: When being in Milano in april 2012 I visited his atelier and shop An amazing place where I bought the book with pictures of this collection I love it so much <3

vosgesparis is an interior design blog where minimalism and Scandinavian simplicity meets industrial and black. It is the place where I show my projects, news from the design world and ideas on decorating with minimal colour and maximum style read more

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